Friday, August 31, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Analysis: Tourism Industry Courts Asian Market as Westerners Shy Away

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 07:47 AM PDT

YANGON – While Myanmar's de facto leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is seeking to lure more tourists by modernizing the country's transportation system and constructing budget hotels, the tourism industry is turning its eyes to the Asian market as many Western online travel agencies (OTAs) discourage travel to Myanmar.

In particular, OTAs in the U.S., Canada, England and Scandinavia have drastically downplayed Myanmar as a tourist destination following the Army's crackdown on the Rohingya community in northern Rakhine, which drove out nearly 700,000 Rohingya to neighboring Bangladesh. Members of the security forces are accused of widespread killings, rapes and arson. A report by an independent UN fact-finding mission said the action had "genocidal intent" and urged that the military leadership be investigated for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

While the UN's findings have, of course, been widely reported by international news outlets, Western OTAs have been quietly punishing Myanmar by removing it as a destination from their brochures and tour packages.

U.S.-based online travel giant Trip Advisor — a website that provides all kinds of advice on accommodation, airlines, restaurants and hotels to travelers — has left Myanmar out of its 2018 Travelers' Choice Awards for the best 25 destinations in Asia for the past several years, while holiday spots in neighboring countries Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam consistently make the list. Thailand alone has five destinations on the most recent list. The page attracts about 456 million visitors a month.

Myanmar was, however, included among the top 20 destinations in Asia as ranked by another popular travel website, Lonely Planet.

A senior review writer for Trip Advisor who uses the name "Prof. Victor", and who regularly writes about Asia's best destinations, disclosed to the The Irrawaddy that Myanmar had been omitted from the site's "Asia's Top 25 Travel Destinations as well as its "Destination on the Rise" list. He added, however, that he didn't know who was responsible for compiling the global and regional destinations lists, or whether the decision to omit Myanmar was based on the political climate in the country. Other sections on the website still list tourist sites in Bagan, Nyaung Shwe, Inle and Yangon. Notably, Rakhine's Ngapali Beach was ranked in the top three among the site's 25 best beaches in Asia.

German hotelier Oliver Esser, who operates a hotel in Ngapali Beach, pointed out that "Trip Advisor or any other publication is a trend setter, so at top is [the] best, [but] in the middle or [at No.] 25 still gets a share. So when you are not there at all it means you are not alive; your name is not alive anymore."

Hot air balloons float above Bagan's stunning scenery. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

Cheryl Long, Trip Advisor's senior communications manager for Asia Pacific, said in a brief email reply to questions from The Irrawaddy on Thursday that her company's rankings are based on an algorithm that considers the quality and quantity of reviews and ratings for hotels, attractions and restaurants worldwide, gathered over a 12-month period. These include traveler bookings made via its own website. 

Myanmar erased from brochures

Daw Sabe Aung, managing director of Nature Dream Tour, said that OTAs from Canada, England, the US and Scandinavia distribute brochures every September that contain a list of popular destinations and itineraries for each country. References to Myanmar are being removed from these brochures due to the negative image of the country created by last year's military clearance operations in northern Rakhine.

Daw Sabe Aung participated in the World Travel Market (WTM) event in Europe, and said she was frequently asked about the Rohingya issue there. She has also learned that some OTAs are even refusing to sell tickets and trips to Myanmar, following pressure from rights groups.

"Some giant travel agencies distribute brochures to their customers in advance of the tour season and Myanmar was left out of these booklets and leaflets. So just think about it: How can Myanmar can draw tourists?" Daw Sabe Aung said.

Although Prof. Victor could not decisively say whether US travel companies were joining the boycott campaign against Myanmar, he assumed that most Westerners received only one view, that of the Rohingya victimhood narrative, from international broadcasting and news outlets, as well as from right groups in the US, and that as a result the view of Myanmar is overwhelmingly negative.

"I scan the international press regularly, looking only for Myanmar-related issues, and mostly see hostile news about Myanmar. Let's save Myanmar tourism from this," Prof. Victor said.

Local travel agency operator Kyaw Swar Min said he had received the same message as Daw Sabe Aung. He explained that until now the local travel and tourism sector has relied more on Western countries than those from Asia. Now, local tour agencies are eyeing a switch to a culture-based tourism theme. This highlights the challenges that await tour agencies, as Asian and Western tourists travel for different reasons. Westerners, he said, love trekking, hiking and unique beaches, while Asian people enjoy shopping.

Kyaw Swar Min said, "It's really tough for those of us who mainly target Westerners. The situation is like a restaurant owner who suddenly needs to open a teashop."

Tourists visit the centuries-old Shwe Nan Daw Kyaung monastery in Mandalay. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

From January to June 2018, the country received about 1.8 million visitors, a drop of roughly 38,000 compared with last year. The government targets 7 million annual tourist arrivals by 2020. Some analysts have blamed the drop on the 2017 violence in Rakhine State. By comparison, neighboring Thailand received 35.38 million tourists in 2017, equivalent to more than half its population. Even the Myanmar Tourism Ministry acknowledged in a state-owned newspaper that the tourist booking rate from Canada had declined 55 percent from last year.

According to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, there are 1,676 hotels and 67,350 rooms across the country for tourists, but the industry's income has fallen since the humanitarian crisis erupted in northern Rakhine State in August last year. Overall visitor numbers from the U.S., Canada, the Middle East and Europe have declined significantly in 2018 because the country's image has been tarnished in the eyes of many Western and European travelers.

Targeting the Asian market

Travel agents believe that tourist arrivals to Myanmar will increase when the country's political climate stabilizes, adding that this will take at least two to three years. The same pattern was observed right after 2012 communal rioting between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities. Oliver Esser, the Ngapali Beach hotel owner, recalled that tour agencies immediately canceled trips for the whole season, but that a few years later the area had its hottest tourist season in decades.

The Irrawaddy asked five businesspeople whether Myanmar would be able to salvage its tourist season in 2018. Three thought it "very unlikely" and two said the situation was "tough to predict".

According to Oliver Esser, "Germany's biggest study tour operator totally trimmed down from 100 tours a year to Myanmar." He added that a famous travel guidebook and online forum said that "Myanmar cannot be sold".

"I think it will [get] much more worse," he said.

Myanmar Tourism Federation vice chairwoman Daw May Myat Mon Win said she had heard the same sentiment, though she did not have precise statistics. Travel agencies and hoteliers are already preparing to promote new destinations that target Asian tourists. Official figures show that Asian tourists already account for 70 percent of the total, with those from the U.S., Europe and Scandinavia providing the remainder. However, Western visitors tend to stay longer — about one to two weeks — and spend more money than their Asian counterparts.

"As far as I know, some tour operators are already stepping out [to develop] Asia-focused tour packages," she said.

The Myanmar government recently introduced visa-free entry for Japanese and Koreans, and visas on arrival for Chinese people as part of its marketing strategy. Daw May Myat Mon Win said Myanmar tourism is generally based on cultural destinations, such as promoting archeological zones, pagodas and temples to older tourists. Until 2014-16, the entire industry forgot to create new experiences for middle aged and younger people, she said.

"Some customers told me that they have no idea where to go in Yangon at nighttime. We don't have anything like a night bazaar, and one should be created," Daw May Myat Mon Win said.

At a meeting with tourism associations in Naypyitaw in mid-August, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi urged tour operators to develop new destinations and nature/adventure trips.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said, "If we can modernize our transportation system, we will be able to attract more tourists."

Daw May Myat Mon Win said that in order to maintain tourist interest in Myanmar, the MTF and the Tourism Ministry discussed at a recent meeting a plan to advertise new tourist spots and untouched destinations on international broadcasters like CNN and other wire agencies. The government has given the green light to funding for a pilot project and plans to kick it off in October.

The post Analysis: Tourism Industry Courts Asian Market as Westerners Shy Away appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Four Deaths, Three Missing in Flooding Caused by Dam Breach

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 06:21 AM PDT

YANGON—Four people have died and three others, including one boy, are missing as a result of flooding of caused by spillwater from a dam on Swar Creek in Taungoo District in Bago Region, according to the Bago Region Government Office on Friday afternoon.

Water from the dam on Swar Creek has been flowing across the land and into Sittaung River since Wednesday after the dam breached, causing flooding across four townships: Yedashe, Taunggu, Oktwin and Kyauk Gyi, in Taungoo District. The regional government has opened 85 relief camps for more than 31,000 affected in those townships. A total of 319 schools are also temporarily closed due to the floods.

Four bodies—including those of a pregnant woman, a 17-year-old boy and two male adults—were found in Swar Township where the dam waters first flooded, confirmed the spokesman of the Bago Region Government Office. The missing persons are an eleven-year-old boy, the driver of a truck and a military major from Infantry Battalion 84.

23 villages tracts in these townships have been affected by floods from the dam and the government has been providing assistance to those affected in temporary relief camps, said U Saw Nyo Win, Bago Region's Minister of Natural Resources, Forestry and Environmental Conservation and the regional government's spokesperson.

On Thursday, the government said more than 63,000 people from 18 village tracts in Yedashe and Swar townships have been affected. Water levels are now decreasing in the area as the water flows downstream in the Sittaung River.

Rehabilitation of the affected villages will take time, said U Saw Nyo Win, as the government is still assessing the damage.

Bago Region faces floods every year due to the heavy rainfall but this is the first time a flood has been caused by the breaching of a dam.

"We have nothing left," said, Daw Phyo Phyo from Shwe Tha Byay, a village in Swar Township. Her house was dragged away by the floodwater.

As soon as she got telephone calls from friends who live closer to the dam on Wednesday morning, she and some 200 villagers ran from their homes within fifteen minutes. They fled with only the clothes on their backs.

"When we started running, we saw the water already coming to us," added Daw Phyo Phyo.

"We did not have any warning about the floods," said villagers interviewed by The Irrawaddy.

U San Myint, another resident of Shwe Tha Byay told The Irrawaddy on Thursday, "We are worried. As the floodwater came in the early morning, we had time to run. If not [the daytime] we wouldn't have had time to run."

"What if we face more heavy rains? We are concerned," he added. "Even though a small part of the dam breached, we faced this much loss. If the breach was bigger, we can't image our fate. I have no doubt that those who live nearer to the riverbank will have to suffer more."

The water flow from Swar Creek's dam also caused damage to Swar Bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay expressway and briefly disrupted transport, but officials had repaired it by Thursday.

A day after the flooding in Swar, local residents of Okpho Township, in western Bago also faced flooding on Thursday afternoon. On Friday, The Irrawaddy learnt that one male adult had died and a teenage boy was missing from the area.

U Kyaw Zin Oo, the local township administrator, told The Irrawaddy that the temporary relief camps are operating while 32 villages in eight village tracts are flooded from heavy rainfall and the accumulation of water from upstream. Okpho faces floods almost every year, but nothing as huge as this year, he added.

Htet Naing Zaw and Kaung Myat Min contributed to this report from Yedashe and Okpho townships. 

The post Four Deaths, Three Missing in Flooding Caused by Dam Breach appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Facebook Bans Deepen Mutual Distrust Between Military, Government

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 05:57 AM PDT

The already growing mistrust between the civilian administration and the powerful military leadership has been suddenly aggravated by social media giant Facebook's decision to ban Myanmar's top generals.

The military leaders suspect that the government, led by de facto national leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was somehow involved in the closure of the Facebook accounts of military commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and some other top brass. But on what grounds?

Some social media users have expressed sympathy with the military's view, pointing to the fact that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi recently visited Singapore, where some of Facebook's top executives including Simon Milner, vice president for public policy, are based.

Milner and his team were recently in Myanmar. As part of the company's efforts to reach out to key players in the country, they met with Information Minister U Pe Myint as well as editors, journalists and representatives of several media groups and other concerned individuals.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was in Singapore for a four-day working visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Sources close to the Myanmar military also said the timing of the ban, so soon after the State Counselor's visit, suggested she had advance knowledge of the plan. Was she involved?

"What was she doing in Singapore?" asked many sympathetic to Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, suggesting that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi played a key role in removing his social media account and those of the other generals.

One thing is certain: Whenever she goes abroad, she is accompanied by ministers and Myanmar Embassy officials, so the military will no doubt have its eyes and ears on her.

In public, many senior military officers are reluctant to voice such concerns, saying only that "we are under the government and it is the duty of the government to respond." The answer is not sufficient, but one can see that the deep-seated mistrust towards Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has deepened.

So then is the military in fact under the government?

Most people in Myanmar believe that executive power in the country is divided between the civilian government and the armed forces.

It is true that the military accounts for 25 percent of the seats in Parliament, and army officers attend Parliament in uniform. The military controls three key ministries — Defense, Home Affairs and Border Affairs — and the government has no influence on them.

But when meeting UN Security Council members who visited Myanmar — following their trip to Bangladesh — to learn about the crisis in northern Rakhine State in early May, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing told the delegates: "Our Tatmadaw [military] represents Myanmar, and though I am the head of the Tatmadaw, our country has a president. And we Tatmadaw act under the leadership of the president."

This means that according to the 2008 Constitution, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing reports directly to President U Win Myint as head of state (and before him, to then-president U Htin Kyaw), and not to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who occupies the position of State Counselor, which was created for her in 2016. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said she would be "above the president", thus making the presidency more of a ceremonial position. Some say that this situation is at the root of all the problems.

During her visit to Singapore, she reiterated her government's intention to amend the Constitution without derailing the national reconciliation process, and stressed the importance of building peace — including in conflict-torn Rakhine State — and promoting economic development.

Answering a question about the possibility of another military coup in her country, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi replied, "Our relationship with the army is not that bad."

"Don't forget that we have three members of the cabinet who are in fact military men, generals, and they're all rather sweet."

In any case, back home, the government moved quickly to deny that it had any role in or advance knowledge of Facebook's decision.

Speaking to reporters in Naypyitaw, President's Office Spokesperson Zaw Htay said that soon after Facebook made the announcement, he received calls from military officials, including a number of lieutenant-generals, asking if he had any information about the account closures.

Zaw Htay quickly denied the speculation, saying, "Neither the government nor [the government's] social media monitoring team played a part in [the decision by Facebook]."

But he admitted that smoothing over the damage would be difficult. "We are concerned that misunderstandings that the government played a role in the decision will hinder the government's efforts on national reconciliation."

Given the depth of the anger among senior military leaders, it will be difficult to overcome the deep-seated suspicion and mistrust between them and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The army generals believe that the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led government has used its remaining ties abroad and international pressure to condemn and ridicule the military. The state counselor, meanwhile, is calling for reconciliation.

In reality, the takedown of Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing’s verified Facebook page came within hours of the release of a report by the UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission on Myanmar, which found that the actions of Myanmar's military leadership against the Rohingya had "genocidal intent" and called for an investigation into possible war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

One senior Facebook official told The Irrawaddy, "We banned Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and other military officials from Facebook for violating our policies, which prohibit dangerous organizations and individuals from using Facebook. We’ve taken this step in Myanmar since international experts, including the recent UN-commissioned report, have found evidence that many of these officials committed serious human rights abuses in the country. And we want to prevent them from using our service to further inflame ethnic and religious tensions. The individuals are banned from Facebook and any new accounts they set up will be removed."

Facebook had to save face, as UN human rights experts investigating possible genocide in Myanmar said in March that Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech in the country. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown last August.

The late former UN chief Kofi Annan told Facebook executives that it should consider establishing a special team to respond more quickly to threats of sectarian violence in countries such as Myanmar that are at high risk.

Earlier this year, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg stared down the US Congress when he was quizzed on his company's possible role in amplifying messages of hatred that paved the way for widespread support of the military's purge of the Rohingya.

The Myanmar government has asked Facebook to more fully explain its bans of the military leaders.

Facebook's action was politically symbolic, but controversial here in Myanmar, where the decision to ban top generals has received a mixed response.

Will Facebook's action prove to have more of an impact on the generals than Western sanctions? We don't know — yet.

Some say the ban may have shot down Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing's presidential ambitions, while others fear that it may only bolster his popularity. On the issue of northern Rakhine and the UN's damning report, the majority of the population will likely back the powerful armed forces, as well as the government.

We can predict with some confidence, however, that a period of bitter political fallout and retaliation are in the pipeline for the country, whose fragile political transition is now stalled.

The post Facebook Bans Deepen Mutual Distrust Between Military, Government appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

UEC Demands Arakan National Party Change Terms Used in By-Election Campaign

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 05:36 AM PDT

MON STATE — The Union Election Commission (UEC) has requested that the Arakan National Party (ANP) use the term "ethnic Rakhine" instead of "Rakhine nationality" in their statement to be read on state television in preparation for the by-election campaign, but the ANP has taken issue with the request, according to local sources.

Myanmar's by-elections will take place on November 3 and the ANP will be running for the constituency of Rathedaung Township in Rakhine State.

U Htun Aung Kyaw, the ANP's general secretary, told The Irrawaddy that the UEC told his party leaders in Naypyitaw on August 27 that they needed to make the name change.

"They invited us to talk on TV for the by-election campaign. They told us to propose a draft before we announce it on TV but they said we need to take the word 'nationality' from the draft, and use 'ethnic' instead," said U Htun Aung Kyaw.

He said that the draft statement has a sentence, the party's slogan, which states that the party vows to work on development for people of Rakhine nationality and other minor Rakhine ethnic groups.

In another sentence the UEC asked the ANP to refrain from saying they will work to have a federal system based on nationality, he said.

The ANP had no problems with the wording of draft statements they prepared for state television in the 2010 and 2015 election campaigns. Similarly, when they used this same statement, based on party policy, for the 2017 by-elections, there were no problems, according to the party.

However, the UEC has decided to restrict the ANP this time and so party leaders have refused to change it.

"We are Rakhine nationality, aren't we? Why do they want us to change it to 'ethnic Rakhine' now? We told [the UEC] that we can't accept it as this is our party policy," said U Htun Aung Kyaw.

U Myint Naing, a spokesperson from the UEC, told The Irrawaddy that they were worried the ANP would use race and religion as a tool for their political gain in the by-election campaign. Therefore, the commission asked for the wording to be changed.

After meeting for negotiations, the UEC and ANP reached an agreement, he said.

However, U Htun Aung Kyaw said that the UEC still wants his party to change the second sentence about working for a federal state based on nationality.

"The UEC told us the sentence was not appropriate [according to] the 2008 Constitution. Therefore, they still want us to change it but we will not," said Htun Aung Kyaw.

The ANP is a political party mainly working for Rakhine people and it won a total of 45 seats at state and union levels in the 2015 national elections. Rakhine State is the only region where the NLD did not win a majority of votes.

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USDP Calls for Action Against Facebook

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 05:29 AM PDT

NAWPYITAW—The Lower House Speaker T Khun Myat rejected the urgent proposal from military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) regarding Facebook's removal of the accounts of members of the Myanmar Army including the army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

"Some may think that it is unnecessary to take seriously things done by a private company, but it insults the dignity of the country," USDP lawmaker U Thaung Aye told The Irrawaddy.

"I put forward the proposal because I want the government to respond and protect [the dignity of the country] and because I want the government to win greater trust from people," added the ex-Lieutenant General.

"The insult to the Tatmadaw, which has saved and protected the country, is an insult to the people and the country."

Amid heavy condemnation for failing to combat hate speech against Rohingya and other Muslims, the social media giant on Monday announced it was removing 18 Facebook accounts, one Instagram account and 52 Facebook pages of military individuals and organizations "to prevent the spread of hate and misinformation" on the platforms.

The statement says Facebook is acting on a recent report by the UNHRC's Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar that found the Facebook accounts and pages of these individuals and organizations to have directly or indirectly contributed to human rights abuses.

"Myanmar's top military generals, including Commander-in-Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, must be investigated and prosecuted for genocide in the north of Rakhine State, as well as for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan States," said the report published the same day.

Facebook's deleting of the accounts amounts to affirming the alleged human rights violations of the Myanmar Tatmadaw, said U Thaung Aye. "This insults the dignity of the Tatmadaw and sovereignty of the country."

U Thaung Aye put forward the urgent proposal on Wednesday.

"The government has spoken [against the removal of the accounts]. But it is not enough. It must issue an official statement. If necessary, it must block [Facebook]. We have to show our national pride that we won't give into bullying," he said.

The Office of the Lower House said yesterday that his proposal is against the parliamentary by-laws and was therefore rejected.

According to the Office of the Lower House, the proposal was rejected according to the parliamentary by-law in paragraph 2 of Article 163(a).

An urgent proposal, the provision says, can be submitted only when an issue arises recently, and is a matter of urgency to the public, and is in need of decision of the Parliament.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Myanmar President Vows to Combats Drugs, Terrorism at Regional Meeting

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 04:30 AM PDT

YANGON — Myanmar President U Win Myint vowed active cooperation in combatting terrorism and drug trafficking in the region while speaking at the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu.

"Myanmar has been encountering the scourge of terrorism," President U Win Myint said, addressing the opening ceremony of the summit on Thursday.

Therefore, Myanmar attaches great importance to counter-terrorism and trans-national crime and assures its continued active cooperation under the BIMSTEC framework, he added.

Myanmar ratified the 2009 BIMSTEC Convention on Combating International Terrorism, Transnational Organized Crime and Illicit Drug Trafficking on July 5, 2016.

The BIMSTEC, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, is a seven-member group comprised of Myanmar, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal as member countries—which together accounts for 22 percent of the global population.

President U Win Myint said at the summit in Nepal that the region won't be an exception while one of the daunting challenges of the world is to ensure food and nutrition security for the rapidly growing population.

He announced that Myanmar would hold the first BIMSTEC ministerial meeting on Agriculture in this fiscal year to address the emerging challenges.

President U Win Myint called for the further enhancement of cooperation in ensuring food security, energy trading, unlocking socio-economic development, poverty alleviation and promoting trade and investments among the member states.

"Despite significant achievements of the member states, poverty still remains a challenge for all of us," he said.

He stressed the need of effective and efficient cooperation in implementing the region's priority projects, as all cooperation areas will not be feasible for BIMSTEC due to financial and resources constraints.

At the conclusion of the two-day summit, the seven member states on Friday signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection on Friday for the trading of electricity.

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UNSC Should Refer Myanmar to ICC: Rights Group

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 04:23 AM PDT

YANGON — The United Nations Security Council should refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), said Fortify Rights, a non-profit rights group based in Southeast Asia, citing rights abuses against displaced persons in the north of the country.

The rights group launched its report regarding human rights violations against displaced civilians in Kachin State and northern Shan State on Thursday.

The report "They Block Everything" states that the Myanmar government, particularly the Myanmar military, has blocked humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of Kachin civilians forcibly displaced by the clashes between the Myanmar Army and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) for more than seven years, which could constitute a war crime.

"Consecutive governments and the military have willfully obstructed local and international aid groups, denying Kachin civilians access to aid," said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights.

"This may amount to a war crime, giving even more reason for the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court," referring to the alleged genocide of Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar Army in Rakhine State.

While the Myanmar military is largely responsible for hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid to Kachin civilians, the former administration of U Thein Sein and the current government demonstrated continuity in their respective policies to deprive war-affected Kachin civilians of adequate humanitarian aid, the report says.

Due to the lack of essential aid, displaced civilians in Kachin State reported increased food insecurity, avoidable health-related deaths, poor living conditions, and protection concerns, according to the Fortify Rights report.

On Monday, a UN fact-finding mission released findings that Myanmar authorities "frequently and arbitrarily denied" humanitarian aid to civilians in Kachin State. The independent mission said that Myanmar's top generals should face prosecution for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Kachin, Rakhine, and Shan states.

To avoid prosecution at the ICC, first of all, the military generals of Myanmar must have concern for the ICC. "Only then, will they change their behaviors," Amy Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, told The Irrawaddy.

David Baulk, a Myanmar human rights specialist with Fortify Rights, said that willful deprivation of humanitarian aid to displaced civilians in Kachin State violates both international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

Without access to basic and lifesaving aid and assistance, the report says, displaced civilians are forced to take risky journeys in search of food and essential items outside displacement camps, exposing them to the dangers of landmines and armed conflict in Myanmar as well as exploitation and arbitrary arrest and detention in China.

The report further claims that the Kachin State minister for security and border affairs, in May, accused the Kachin Baptist Convention—one of the largest providers of aid to displaced communities in KIA-controlled areas—with allegedly violating Article 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act for delivering aid in areas under the control of the KIA, which the Myanmar government has labeled as a "terrorist" group.

Conviction under Article 17(1) carries a three-year prison sentence and/or a fine.

From June 2017 to June 2018, the Myanmar government unconditionally approved only approximately five percent of 562 applications submitted by international humanitarian agencies seeking travel authorization to assist displaced communities in government-controlled areas of Kachin State.

Even fewer requests were approved for aid agencies seeking access to areas under the control of the KIA, says the report.

"There is no court in Myanmar to take action against perpetrators according to international laws. So, there is no guarantee that the trial at home be fair. That's why [Fortify Rights] has called for an international investigation," said director U Aung Myo Min of Equality Myanmar, a local human rights organization.

Following the Tatmadaw's operations in Kachin State's Tanai that displaced thousands of civilians, 32 Kachin civil society organizations at home and abroad called in April on the UN Security Council to refer Myanmar to the ICC.

The report of Fortify Right is based primarily on 195 interviews conducted by Fortify Rights from 2013 to 2018 with displaced civilians, local and international humanitarian workers, UN officials, KIO representatives, and KIA soldiers.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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NCA Signatories to Review Peace Process

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 01:27 AM PDT

YANGON — Ethnic signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement will review the current political landscape and the peace process, said vice-chairman of the Pa-O National Liberation Army (PNLA) Khun Myint Tun.

The peace process steering team (PPST) of the NCA signatories will meet in Thailand's Chiang Mai in September, said Khun Myint Tun, who is also on the PPST.

"We have things to review after the third session of the Panglong Conference. And we'll also discuss what steps we should take regarding the current political landscape," he added.

The PPST will also discuss holding a summit between NCA signatories and non-signatories, he said.

Among the key ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) that have not signed the NCA with the government are the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

The UWSA said that it would consider inking the peace pact if the government and Myanmar Army gave the group a written promise that it would have the right to seek changes to and/or resign from the agreement.

The meeting, however, will not touch upon the recent clashes between the Myanmar Army or Tatmadaw and Brigade 5 of the Karen National Union (KNU) in Karen's Papun District because it is a military issue, said Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo, general secretary of the KNU.

"We'll discuss how we can proceed with the peace process together," he told The Irrawaddy.

The PPST held its 22nd and 23rd meetings in July since signing the NCA in 2015.

The team is comprised of eight EAOs—the Karen National Union, the Karen National Liberation Army–Peace Council (KNLA-PC), the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), the All Burma Student's Democratic Front (ABSDF), the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), the Chin National Front (CNF), and the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO)—that signed the NCA with former U Thein Sein's administration in 2015.

Two more EAOs — the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Lahu Democratic Union (LDU) – signed the NCA with the National League for Democracy-led government in February.

The two are attending the PPST meetings as observers.

"We will work on the agreed principles to achieve more meaningful results in the peace process," said Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo.

In February, the PPST formed two teams to hold informal talks with the government on political and security issues.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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Duterte Says Philippines Better Off Run by Dictator if He Were Not Around

Posted: 31 Aug 2018 01:16 AM PDT

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte has said graft and illicit drugs were so entrenched in the Philippines that if he were not around, it would be better off run by a dictator such as late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

In a speech on Thursday, Duterte reiterated that he wanted to quit before his term ends in 2022, but was reluctant to hand power to Leni Robredo, the vice president who was elected separately and was not his running mate.

Robredo has been a critic of the president’s deadly war on drugs. Duterte said there would be disorder if his crackdown was halted, and the Philippines could do with an authoritarian at the helm.

“You’re better off choosing a dictator of the likes of Marcos, that’s what I suggested,” Duterte said. “Constitutional succession, it’s Robredo. But she cannot hack it.”

Duterte's expressed admiration for the much-vilified Marcos has been controversial, with many Filipinos still tormented by his brutal two-decade rule, ended in his overthrow in a popular, army-backed uprising in 1986.

Thousands of people were arrested, killed, tortured or disappeared under martial law in the 1970s.

Many survivors are reminded of that by the political influence wielded by the Marcos family, with widow Imelda a congresswoman, his son and namesake a former senator who lost to Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential election, and daughter, Imee Marcos a provincial governor.

Imee Marcos, 62, is expected to run for the senate next year and attends or speaks at many of Duterte’s public events around the country, despite having no role in his administration.

She caused outrage last week when she said it was time for older Filipinos to “move on” from the martial law years, like younger ones had.

The mercurial Duterte, 73, has been talking more often about retiring, due to exasperation about corruption and narcotics. Rumors have spread that he is in declining health, which he dismissed on Thursday as “fake news."

In the same speech, he said that amid turmoil in the Catholic church worldwide, he wanted to create an “opening” at home for victims to reveal abuse by priests, which he personally had experienced.

He again joked about rape, despite repeated rebukes from women’s groups at home and abroad.

Commenting on police data showing his home city, Davao, had the country’s highest number of rape cases, Duterte said there would be more when there were “many beautiful women."

The post Duterte Says Philippines Better Off Run by Dictator if He Were Not Around appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Vietnam Arrests Exiles Group Member with Weapons: Security Ministry

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 09:42 PM PDT

HANOI — Police in Vietnam have arrested a man accused of being a member of a “terrorist” group and planning attacks in the country, the Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday.

In a statement, it said Le Quoc Binh, 44, was taken into custody early on Wednesday after entering Vietnam from Cambodia bringing a large number of weapons with which he intended to carry out terrorist activities.

It said Binh was a member of Viet Tan, a US-based exiles group that Communist Vietnam regards as a “terrorist” body.

Police seized seven guns and 500 bullets after raiding Binh’s house in the central city of Quy Nhon, it added.

Binh’s family members and lawyer were not immediately available for comment.

A spokesman for Viet Tan, which describes itself as an “unsanctioned pro-democracy party," rejected the allegations.

“Hanoi’s Ministry of Public Security is trying to scare people (not to) support pro-democracy organizations by falsely accusing us of smuggling weapons. This is a ridiculous fabrication,” Viet Tan spokesman Duy Hoang said in a statement.

“Viet Tan does not espouse armed violence nor work with any individuals that do,” Hoang said.

Binh’s arrest came days after Vietnam ordered police and military forces in the capital Hanoi to prevent big gatherings or protests during its National Day holiday on Sept. 2.

Last week, a court in the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City jailed two Vietnamese-Americans accused of loyalty to the now defunct US-backed state of South Vietnam and masterminding a series of bomb plots.

Police said the pair had planned more bomb attacks on public holidays. Vietnamese authorities said the two were acting on behalf of the “Provisional Government of Vietnam," a California-based exiles organization also listed as a “terrorist” group by Vietnam.

South Vietnam ceased to exist when the Communist North won the Vietnam War in 1975.

The post Vietnam Arrests Exiles Group Member with Weapons: Security Ministry appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Fake Photos in Myanmar Army’s ‘True News’ Book on the Rohingya Crisis

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 09:18 PM PDT

YANGON — The grainy black-and-white photo, printed in a new book on the Rohingya crisis authored by Myanmar’s army, shows a man standing over two bodies, wielding a farming tool. “Bengalis killed local ethnics brutally," reads the caption.

The photo appears in a section of the book covering ethnic riots in Myanmar in the 1940s. The text says the image shows Buddhists murdered by Rohingya – members of a Muslim minority the book refers to as “Bengalis” to imply they are illegal immigrants.

But a Reuters examination of the photograph shows it was actually taken during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war, when hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis were killed by Pakistani troops.

It is one of three images that appear in the book, published in July by the army’s department of public relations and psychological warfare, that have been misrepresented as archival pictures from the western state of Rakhine.

In fact, Reuters found that two of the photos originally were taken in Bangladesh and Tanzania. A third was falsely labeled as depicting Rohingya entering Myanmar from Bangladesh, when in reality it showed migrants leaving the country.

Government spokesman Zaw Htay and a military spokesman could not be reached for comment on the authenticity of the images. U Myo Myint Maung, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Information, declined to comment, saying he had not read the book.

The 117-page “Myanmar Politics and the Tatmadaw: Part I” relates the army’s narrative of August last year, when some 700,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine to Bangladesh, according to United Nations agencies, triggering reports of mass killings, rape, and arson. Tatmadaw is the official name of Myanmar’s military.

Much of the content is sourced to the military’s “True News” information unit, which since the start of the crisis has distributed news giving the army’s perspective, mostly via Facebook.

The book is on sale at bookstores across the commercial capital of Yangon. A member of staff at Innwa, one of the biggest bookshops in the city, said the 50 copies the store ordered had sold out, but there was no plan to order more. “Not many people came looking for it,” said the bookseller, who declined to be named.

On Monday, Facebook banned the army chief and other military officials accused of using the platform to “inflame ethnic and religious tensions." The same day, UN investigators accused Senior General Min Aung Hlaing of overseeing a campaign with “genocidal intent” and recommended he and other senior officials be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

In its new book, the military denies the allegations of abuses, blaming the violence on “Bengali terrorists” it says were intent on carving out a Rohingya State named “Arkistan."

Attacks by Rohingya militants calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army preceded the military’s crackdown in August 2017 in Rakhine State, in which the UN investigators say 10,000 people may have been killed. The group denies it has separatist aims.

The book also seeks to trace the history of the Rohingya – who regard themselves as native to western Myanmar – casting them as interlopers from Bangladesh.

In the introduction to the book the writer, listed as Lieutenant Colonel Kyaw Kyaw Oo, says the text was compiled using “documentary photos” with the aim of “revealing the history of Bengalis."

“It can be found that whenever a political change or an ethnic armed conflict occurred in Myanmar those Bengalis take it as an opportunity,” the book reads, arguing that Muslims took advantage of the uncertainty of Myanmar’s nascent democratic transition to ignite “religious clashes."

Reuters was unable to contact Kyaw Kyaw Oo for comment.

Reuters examined some of the photographs using Google Reverse Image Search and TinEye, tools commonly used by news organizations and others to identify images that have previously appeared online. Checks were then made with the previously credited publishers to establish the origins of those images.

Of the 80 images in the book, most were recent pictures of army chief Min Aung Hlaing meeting foreign dignitaries or local officials visiting Rakhine. Several were screengrabs from videos posted by Rohingya militant group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

Of eight photos presented as historical images, Reuters found the provenance of three to be faked and was unable to determine the provenance of the five others.

One faded black-and-white image shows a crowd of men who appear to be on a long march with their backs bent over. “Bengalis intruded into the country after the British Colonialism occupied the lower part of Myanmar,” the caption reads.

The photo is apparently intended to depict Rohingya arriving in Myanmar during the colonial era, which ended in 1948. Reuters determined the picture is in fact a distorted version of a color image taken in 1996 of refugees fleeing the genocide in Rwanda. The photographer, Martha Rial, working for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, won the Pulitzer Prize. The newspaper did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the use of its photo.

Another picture, also printed in black-and-white, shows men aboard a rickety boat. “Bengalis entered Myanmar via the watercourse,” the caption reads.

Actually, the original photo depicts Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants leaving Myanmar in 2015, when tens of thousands fled for Thailand and Malaysia. The original has been rotated and blurred so the photo looks granular. It was sourced from Myanmar’s own Ministry of Information.

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Thursday, August 30, 2018

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Karenni Protesters Who Were Detained for Statue Protest Freed on Bail

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 08:00 AM PDT

MON STATE—Six Karenni youth activists who participated in a July protest against a state government project to erect a statue of General Aung San in the Karenni State capital, Loikaw, were granted bail by a court in the town on Wednesday.

Two of the six had already been released from detention last week, and the other four were freed on Wednesday, according to local sources.

Local authorities charged a total of 23 people who took to the streets to oppose the state government's plan to build a statue of General Aung San in the capital. Most of the 23 were granted bail after being charged, but six declined to request bail, saying they would fight the case from behind bars.

After almost two months in prison, however, the six decided to request bail and fight the charges from outside of prison, citing the many difficulties they faced dealing with their legal cases while incarcerated.

Dee De, one of the four youth activists released yesterday, told The Irrawaddy that five townships had charged them with violations under two provisions of the penal code.

They were charged under Article 505 (b) and (c) in relation to their distribution of pamphlets ahead of the protest, and articles 19 and 20 of the Peaceful Assembly Law, which regulates protests. Most of the charges were filed by Loikaw Township.

"We have to go to the courts in each of the five townships almost every day. Traveling was very difficult. We're exhausted. And our prison cell is too small. Therefore, we decided to request bail and deal with the charges from outside," Dee De said.

The five townships are Loikaw, Demoso, Hpruso, Shandaw and Hpasawng.

He said the six had planned to request that the court grant them bail earlier, but decided to delay the request when they noticed that authorities were detaining more and more people, including many who were not protest leaders. They were worried that their release and subsequent contact with other protesters would fuel authorities' suspicions and lead to more arrests.

Dee De said his case demonstrated that rule of law remained shaky in Myanmar. He said he had learned that the Karenni State government was intent on prosecuting the 23 youths to the fullest possible extent.

And while the state government has halted the statue project, activists say it could be resumed at any time, despite the fact that the underlying issue has not been resolved.

Myo Hlaing Win, another detainee who was released yesterday, said, "We are youth, and we are educated. We have our dignity. But the government devalues us by accusing us of acting like terrorists. It's upsetting."

"This is a democratically elected government, but it acts like a military regime. They should not act like this. We did not act violently. Our protest was very peaceful and simple. We have a right to express our wishes," he said.

Activists said the authorities falsely accused them of stoking ethnic hatred between the Karenni and Burmese communities, and that their action was an attempt to secede from the Union.

"We did not engage in terrorism. We staged a peaceful protest. We have a right to protest. We distributed pamphlets. We did not encourage our people to be violent," Dee De said.

"These charges are intended to threaten our political activities. The charges were intended to oppress us," the youth activist said.

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Organic Poultry Farm Makes Waves in Yangon

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 05:34 AM PDT

Shwe Taung Nyo Gyi farm is making waves in Yangon with its local, organic poultry and natural eggs.

The farm, founded in 2017 by friends Zaw Ye Naung and Marn Thu Shein, is certified by the Myanmar Organic Agriculture Group (MOAG).

"We are both fathers who wanted to feed healthy, chemical-free foods to our children. That's how we started," said 34-year-old Zaw Ye Naung.

He used to buy what he thought were natural eggs at a local market when his son was young, but one day he to the market and his trusted vendor had closed.

"So, I went to the vendor's home. Unfortunately, I found out he had been lying to me. I saw him bleaching the eggs to whiten them. I was so mad," Zaw Ye Naung said.

"I don't trust those kinds of vendors anymore. I don't mean that all egg vendors do the same thing, just that I lost trust. I talked to my close friends about what we should feed our children and we decided to do it ourselves," he added.

They chose to produce eggs first because of the nutritional value.

"We started to provide young and old people with healthy, chemical-free eggs. But we wanted scientific proof from a lab of the quality because we want our customers to trust us," Zaw Ye Naung said.

He contacted the MOAG for advice.

"We started the farm with a lot of help from the MOAG," he said.

Shwe Taung Nyo Gyi now sells two products: organic Myanmar chicken and natural eggs.

"Our eggs are natural, not organic. The chickens that lay our eggs are non-genetically modified organisms (non-GMOs) and we feed them plants, not dry, ready-made food," he explained.

"The chickens are free-range and we try to avoid using antibiotics. This is why we call them natural eggs."

Zaw Ye Naung said to be certified organic, they would need to feed the chickens organic food, which they cannot afford because the prices are so high.

"We feed our chickens six foods using the 'whole feed system,' aiming for high nutritional value. If we want to have organic eggs, we need to prove that these foods are all organic. We hope to do this eventually."

They currently buy natural foods directly from suppliers, whose farms they have visited.

Because chickens can have stomach problems, they store the food systematically so it does not go bad or get moldy, mixing it a day before feeding it to the chickens. "That's how we are taking care of our chickens," he said.

There's a shortcut to get organic certification – feeding the chickens only corn. But Shwe Taung Nyo Gyi doesn't do this because the end product is less nutritious, Zaw Ye Naung added.

Some Myanmar people don't trust farms when they claim to be organic, which is why Zaw Ye Naung keeps laboratory results on hand.

"Both our chicken and eggs are 100 percent chemical free, with low fat and low sugar. If customers want proof, we can show them," he said.

The eggs color and size and noticeably different from others at the market.

The farm has two types of chickens that aren't used for their eggs – Phine Tone and Lal Pyaung – that have been certified organic by the MOAG and the UN Global Compact.

'Ah Tee' organic poultry farm of Shwe Taung Nyo Gyi in Pyin Oo Lwin / Supplied

"These are the best two chickens native to Myanmar. We had to breed them to be organic because they used to eat all sorts of foods," he said.

They fed the chickens organic rice, let them run free and did a soil test to check that they weren't getting chemicals.

When the customers buy chicken, Shwe Taung Nyo Gyi prints a QR code on the package. Customers can trace where the chicken came from, what type it is and what it ate.

"We value trust and this is the proof," Zaw Ye Naung said.

Their customers are largely foreigners, friends and upscale restaurants.

"We are a small business. We only produce a small amount and won't be able to change the local market," he said. "We only hoped to provide a healthy option for those who wanted it."

Shwe Taung Nyo Gyi was founded in June 2017. It started with 1,000 chickens at Ngapudaw Township, Irrawaddy Region. The egg-laying chickens are ordered from overseas and certified non-GMO.

They experimented for months with the best combination of feed for the chickens to produce natural eggs and have settled on a formula that delivers.

The two friends also want to raise awareness of the overuse of plastic, so they package the eggs in woven, bamboo baskets.

"We're selling natural eggs so we don't want to package them in plastic. Also, we want to provide jobs for older women around our farm," Zaw Ye Naung said, adding that they are mostly seasonal farmers so this provide work for them in slower times.

He found women who were interested and provided them with training.

They also started trying to farm rice and corn organically with local farmers.

"It's win-win. We don't want to be successful alone. This is a social business and we hope to include others in a healthy food movement," he said.

Customers fill out a form requesting how often they would like eggs and in what amount.

"Since we have a limited amount, we close the form after we reach our limit," Zaw Ye Naung said.

The natural eggs are delivered within 48 hours of a request and have an expiration date, usually of around two weeks.

Chickens are sold in small and large sizes, priced between 15,000 and 18,500 kyats each.

"Nature gives us everything but people change natural products into chemical products. We need to fix the damage. That's organic," Zaw Ye Naung said.

The post Organic Poultry Farm Makes Waves in Yangon appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

‘Ghost’ Container Ship Runs Aground in Gulf of Martaban

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 05:31 AM PDT

YANGON—A "ghost" container ship with no crew or cargo ran aground near the mouth of the Gulf of Martaban, 7 nautical miles from Thongwa Township in Yangon Region, early this week.

According to the Myanmar Department of Marine Administration, the container ship Sam Ratulangi, registered in Palau, ran aground in bad weather three days ago.

"There's no crew or cargo on board," the department said in a report on the case released on Thursday and seen by The Irrawaddy.

The department speculated that the ship was either towed by another vessel for some distance before separating and eventually running aground, or abandoned after a failed attempt to tow it.

The department said it would contact the port authority in Palau as soon as possible in the hopes of reaching its owner in order to salvage the vessel.

The post 'Ghost' Container Ship Runs Aground in Gulf of Martaban appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Military Pledges Cooperation with Commission of Inquiry on Rakhine

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 05:29 AM PDT

YANGON — Myanmar's military said it would cooperate fully with the Independent Commission of Inquiry for Rakhine, which recently began its investigation into allegations of human rights violations and related issues in the restive region.

Vice Senior General Soe Win said at a meeting with commission members on Wednesday in Naypyitaw that "the military is on standby to offer full cooperation with the commission."

According to state media, the deputy commander-in-chief also told the commission that the military provided evidence of the situation in Rakhine to a United Nations Security Council team that visited Myanmar, as well as to all diplomats who have met with Army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. All of the information was released in a timely manner to local and international media, he said.

Despite this, he said, the military has found that the international community has a weak understanding of the real situation in Rakhine.

On Aug. 15, the four-member commission launched its investigation into claims against Myanmar's security forces following the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)'s attacks in northern Rakhine, and related issues. It met with government ministers and State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Aug. 14.

State media reported that at Wednesday's meeting, the commission's chairwoman, Philippine diplomat Rosario Malano, said the commission was committed to conducting its investigation based on evidence.

Following the meeting with the military, the commission members met with the State Counselor again on Thursday in Naypyitaw.

The military's proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party earlier objected to the inclusion of foreign experts in the commission, viewing it as foreign intervention in the internal affairs of the country.

Senior military leaders including Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and Vice Snr-Gen Soe Win are named in a recently released UN fact-finding mission's report that calls for genocide charges against the country's military leadership over its actions against Rohingya Muslims.

The post Military Pledges Cooperation with Commission of Inquiry on Rakhine appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Ten Reasons Behind Myanmar’s Economic Slump

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 05:19 AM PDT

YANGON—A recent business sentiment survey of the second quarter of 2018 outlined ten main reasons why Myanmar's businesses are facing worse conditions now compared to the two previous years.

Nearly 1,500 businesses from the service, manufacturing and trade sectors contributed to the survey which was conducted by the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI).

The survey said the country's economy has been slowing since 2016 but business in all sectors dropped significantly this year in particular. Overall business confidence is down by nearly 25 percent compared to last year.

The manufacturing sector experienced a downturn in the last three years, with an overall wellness drop of four percent. The export and import trading sectors have decreased, with the overall wellness index down by five percent and 1.2 percent respectively in the last three years, according to the survey.

The survey results showed 10 root causes for the decline. These are higher taxations and tariffs; restrictions in financing and banking; depreciation of the kyat; unstable economic rules and regulations; lack of market demand; delays in the import and export procedure; increases in local costs and inflation; competition from foreign companies; a lack of skilled human resources; and poor infrastructure.

According to the survey, taxes are unreasonably high while illegal trade can't be controlled on the ground. Moreover, the tax payment process still involves much red tape within the government departments, the survey said.

The survey said kyat depreciation causes chronic losses in the production sector and also affects product imports and creates inflation and overall higher costs across the country. Business people have said that raw materials cost more due to kyat depreciation and as a result the production sector is declining very quickly.

The survey also suggested 26 points of reform for the government to remove deterrents of the economy's ability to grow.

Survey participants suggested that reforms are needed in the financial and banking sectors, specifically in the documents required for getting loans, and the long wait for verification of private loans.

The survey pointed out that despite reforms made in the financial and banking sectors to date, the banking process is still outdated with poor human resources and services, while a majority of business people still don't fully understand the bank loan process.

According to results from the survey, retailers welcomed the government's decision to allow foreign investors into the retail and wholesale market but were concerned that they wouldn't be able to compete with them under current conditions. To be able to compete with foreign retailers, they have demanded that the government abolish the withholding of tax, relax the permit license process and draw up a Foreign Investment Law for the retail and wholesale industry.

The industrial sector has requested that the government set up a department to promote exports which would impose proper regulations on exporters and take action against illegal traders who operate without paying tax to the government.

According to survey participants in the trade sector, poor infrastructure is a major challenge as it makes business time-consuming and raises consumer costs. The trade sector said illegal trade remained the biggest challenge with traders suggesting that the government impose proper trading rules and regulations based on international or ASEAN standards.

The post Ten Reasons Behind Myanmar's Economic Slump appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Violent Crimes Shake Mandalay Townships

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 04:02 AM PDT

MANDALAY — Recent robberies during which one student was killed and another man injured in separate incidents in Kyaukse Township and Mandalay on Wednesday night have frightened locals.

Ko Nay Min Htet, 19, a final year student from Kyaukse Government Technical Institute, Mandalay Region, was playing games on his mobile phone while travelling with his friend on a motorcycle when three men tried to grab his phone.

When their motorcycle fell over and the three men proceeded to attack them, Ko Nay Min Htet was stabbed to death and his friend was injured.

"His friend said Nay Min Htet requested the robbers not take their phones, but the angry robbers beat him and stabbed him so he died on the spot," U Toe Wai Phyo, uncle of deceased Ko Nay Min Htet, told The Irrawaddy.

Since Ko Nay Min Htet was from Naypyitaw, his parents are now in Kyaukse to bring his body home.

The three robbers, Ko Min Khant Kyaw, Ko Aung Thu Hein and Ko Min Chit Aung were arrested and are being held in police custody for causing injury and murder, according to a representative from Kyaukse Township police station.

However, police have said the incident was not in fact related to robbery but rather due to a dispute between the youth, which lead to the fight and murder, according to their investigation.

Locals from Kyaukse said such murders are rare in the town and that they now worry about their children going out at night.

"There are many crimes such as robbery of mobile phones and motorcycles. We also witness fights between youth, however yesterday's incident was so brutal that we feel [it is] unsafe to let our children go out during the night," said U Ko Ko Lwin, a local member of 88 Generation Peace and Open Society.

In a separate incident on the same night, in Mandalay's Maha Aung Myay Township, a man's throat was slashed and his motorcycle robbed.

Ko Kyaw Oo, 44, was sitting on his parked motorcycle and talking on his mobile phone when an unknown man approached and slashed his throat before riding away on the motorcycle.

The police said Ko Kyaw Oo was rushed to Mandalay General Hospital for medical treatment and is still in critical condition.

"We are [looking] to arrest the culprit and the case was registered at Maha Aung Myay police station under robbery and causing harm which could be punished with up to life in prison," Police Colonel Myo Aung, police chief of Mandalay District told The Irrawaddy.

Although the police said there has been no significant increase in the number of crimes in Mandalay Region, they admitted that robbery tactics and injuries inflicted have become more brutal.

"The crime rate is not increasing significantly but the way the criminals hurt their victims has become more brutal. The speed of the spread of news on social media has become faster so it is known more quickly than before and so causes fear in the public," Police Col. Myo Aung explained.

In recent months, the robbers use more brutal methods on their victims to rob their mobile phones, money or motorcycles, causing the victims more serious injuries or sometimes death.

Earlier this month, a woman and man were shot by a gunman who tried to rob them. The woman died almost immediately while the man remains in hospital recovering from his injuries. The gunman was caught on the spot by locals and handed over to police for arrest. He was later brought to court charged with robbery and murder.

"Not only Mandalay, but other regions also are quite unsafe for the public, especially those who travel during the night time. We are boosting 'Operation Eagle' for anti-narcotics and anti-crime, division-wide, and doing as much as we can to ensure the safety of the public," said Police Col. Myo Aung.

The post Violent Crimes Shake Mandalay Townships appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Yangon Court May Resume Murder Trial After Family Withdraws Case

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 03:50 AM PDT

YANGON — The Yangon High Court on Wednesday heard the arguments of two sides regarding a proposal to review the murder of a Facebook comedian, following the withdrawal of the case.

Aung Yell Htwe, who became popular for a series of short comedy videos he posted to his Facebook account starting in 2016, died after being kicked and beaten by a group of men while attending a party last New Year's Eve in Yangon's Thingangyun Township.

Three men were arrested in connection with the murder but after nearly six months of proceedings, the detained murder suspects were released on July 25 before any charges could be brought against them, after the Yangon Eastern District Court accepted an appeal from the victim's family asking to settle the case.

The public prosecutor asked the high court to review the case, arguing that the withdrawal of the case disrupts law and order, as the case is already in the spotlight.

Eight more prosecution witnesses had yet to testify when the case was dropped and the Union Attorney General's Office also asked to resume the trial, the public prosecutor said.

The court heard from 14 of 22 witnesses for the plaintiff. The lawyers pointed out that the court had yet to call key witnesses in the case including a forensic pathologist and police investigators, and CCTV records were not produced.

Following the intervention of state leaders and with public criticism mounting over the dropping of the case, the Union Attorney General's Office ordered the Yangon Region attorney general to annul the court's decision to dismiss the case and to resume the trial on July 30.

On the same day, the Yangon Region Attorney General U Han Htoo, who had approved the request of the victim's family to drop the case, addressed the High Court to seek a review of the court's decision.

Lawyers of the accused Than Htut Aung (a.k.a Thar Gyi), Pyae Phyo Aung (a.k.a Aung Lay) and Kyaw Zaw Han (a.k.a Kyaw Zaw) made counter-arguments, asking the high court not to resume the trial.

Defense lawyer U Chit Ko Ko attempted to rebut the arguments of the public prosecutor, asking the court if the decision should be reversed just because the case has attracted public attention.

Aung Yell Htwe was a Facebook celebrity and it is not strange that his case attracted public attention, he said.

He asked whether disrupting law and order was a strong enough reason to review the case, adding that the judicial sector would be impacted if the court accepted review of the case for baseless reasons.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

The post Yangon Court May Resume Murder Trial After Family Withdraws Case appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

More Than 63,000 People Affected by Bago Flooding

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 03:14 AM PDT

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — One woman is missing and over 63,000 people from 85 villages in 17 village tracts in Yedashe Township, Taungoo district have been affected by flooding since the Swar Creek Dam was breached on Wednesday morning, according to state-run media and the Bago Region government office.

Regional lawmaker U Kyaw Kyaw said one person had died and six others were missing as of Wednesday night, though these figures were not reported in state-run media on Thursday.

Heavy rainfall over the past week caused water to overrun the dam and pour into the Sittaung River, which flooded villages along its east bank. Officials said the amount of water flowing out of the dam was decreasing. U Kyaw Kyaw told The Irrawaddy, however, that they remain worried as the river was still very swollen. The Sittaung River flooded severely last month.

The Meteorological Department on Thursday also warned residents of Madauk and Shwe Kyin near the Sittaung and Shwe Kyin rivers in Bago region and Hpaan near the Salween River "to take precautionary measures" as the water had reached a dangerous level. It also warned that the Bago River is likely to reach dangerous levels in the next two days.

Government ministers, officials, soldiers and firefighters have been making desperate rescue efforts since the spillway burst on Wednesday, flooding villages and causing a bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Highway in Yedashe Township to buckle, disrupting commuters and transportation.

The Swar Bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Highway is undergoing rapid repairs. Officials began allowing trucks and buses to pass on Thursday afternoon.

Along with ongoing rescue and relief efforts, the Ministry of Construction is making efforts to repair other bridges affected by the flooding, said Construction Minister U Han Zaw.

The Swar Creek Dam is 337 feet high and can hold 216,350 acre-feet of water. State media reported that due to the heavy rainfall, the water level had overrun by about 1.6 feet, destroying the spillway.

Damaged walls are seen after the spillway of an irrigation dam burst at Swar Creek in Swar Township, Bago Region on Aug. 30, 2018. / Reuters

Bago Region hosts a large number of irrigation dams with huge capacity. The dams have been over-full due to heavy rainfall since the start of the monsoon season in May.

Meanwhile another 32 villages and six quarters in Okpho Township in Tharrawaddy district of Bago were inundated on Wednesday due to heavy rainfalls.

From late July to mid-August, 10 townships in Bago's four districts — Bago, Taungoo, Pyay and Thayawady — have been flooded. Over 137,000 acres of farmland out of almost 500,000 acres have been inundated, the Bago Region Government Office said on Aug. 15.

Over 116,000 residents of the 10 townships have been affected. Bago is the most flood-affected area in the country, but other regions have also faced flooding including Magwe, Tanintharyi, Irrawaddy, Sagaing and Naypyitaw, as well as Chin, Karenni, Karen and Mon states.

The flooding in July and August has so far affected more than 210,000 people in over 9,900 households, and caused 13 deaths nationwide, according to figures released by the National Natural Disaster Management Committee on Aug. 25.

Htet Naing Zaw contributed to this report from Yedashe Township. 

The post More Than 63,000 People Affected by Bago Flooding appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Clashes Break Out Between Myanmar Army and KNLA

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 02:04 AM PDT

YANGON — Clashes broke out between Myanmar Army and Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army (KNU/KNLA) troops near the village of Kan Nyi Naung in Karen State's Papun District on Tuesday.

Battalion 44 of the Myanmar Army clashed with Battalion 102 of KNLA Brigade 5, according to a Tatmadaw officer stationed in Papun District.

Clashes continued and there were three intermittent clashes on Wednesday, the officer said.

He declined to discuss the reason for the clashes or the number of casualties.

Padoh Saw Ta Doh Moo, general secretary of the KNU, claimed that clashes erupted after Myanmar Army troops entered territory controlled by KNLA Brigade 5.

"There was engagement. I don't know the details. It is difficult to contact the military. We are trying to contact their tactical commanders on the ground, but have not been able to yet," he said.

"It is not unusual for the two sides to exchange fire on the frontlines over a misunderstanding. But I'm not sure what the cause is for the misunderstanding this time," he added.

"What is important is that both sides should be committed to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA)," said the KNU general secretary.

The KNU is a major armed ethnic group that signed the NCA with the government in 2015. Despite this, there have been frequent military tensions between the Myanmar Army and KNLA Brigade 5.

In March, the Myanmar Army deployed its troops and did roadwork in Luthaw Township, an area controlled by the KNLA in Papun District. Resultant clashes between the military and TNLA forced more than 3,000 locals from their homes. Many are still unable to return home.

The two clashed again in July in Papun during the third session of the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference in administrative capital Naypyitaw.

Moreover, the Southeast Command of the Myanmar Army banned a military parade to mark Karen Martyrs' Day in Papun District at the end of July. The command also deployed troops, heightening military tensions.

Joint ceasefire monitoring committees at different levels have not yet been able to resolve the conflicts between the two sides.

The KNU has formed a military affairs negotiation team (MANT) to discuss military and deployment matters with the Tatmadaw, said the KNU general secretary. However, there have been no discussions between the two sides, he said.

"Much more has yet to be discussed regarding implementing the NCA while political agreements have not yet been reached. There is confusion," he said.

In an interview with The Irrawaddy in July, deputy chief of staff of the KNLA Lt-Gen Baw Kyaw He claimed that Myanmar had expanded its deployments in KNLA-controlled areas after signing the NCA; and that Tatmadaw is also attempting to obtain a border area controlled by the KNLA Brigade 5 in Papun District.

The Irrawaddy was unable to contact the spokespersons of Tatmadaw to seek their comments on Baw Kyaw He's claim.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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A Critical UN Report and What Is to Come

Posted: 30 Aug 2018 12:34 AM PDT

The UN Human Rights Council released its 'Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar' on Monday, calling for genocide charges against the country's military leadership for attacking Rohingya Muslims, and blaming the country's de facto leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for failing to intervene.

A few hours after the report was released, Facebook shut down Myanmar military chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing's Facebook page, stating that the company was acting on the UN report that found the Facebook accounts and pages of the military chief and other individuals and organizations to have directly or indirectly contributed to human rights abuses.

In the wake of the release of the UN report, The Irrawaddy talked to Swedish journalist and Myanmar expert Bertil Lintner, who has been covering Asia for four decades and written extensively about the country's politics, about the possible consequences of the report on the country and the military, the Snr-Gen's account shutdown and its implications.

The UN report was just released. It called for prosecution of the military leadership. What consequences do you think will come of the report?

Well first of all, I don't think the report is going to have that much of an impact at all. If they bring this case to the International Criminal Court, Burma isn't a signatory of the Rome Statute. Bangladesh is but it is very hard to prove it because it wasn't committed on the Bangladesh side of the border. But even if the Bangladesh government decided to refer it to the ICC, what are they going to do? I mean the accused are here in this country and they are highly unlikely to go to any country where they are likely to be arrested. So it's mainly symbolic – the impact will be more symbolic when it comes to any kind of legal matters. The court does not have jurisdiction over Burma so there's nothing they can do here really.

Facebook has banned the Snr-Gen, citing human rights violations from the UN report. On the other hand, the social media platform was under fire for failing to handle hate speech. What's your take?

I think Min Aung Hlaing is much more upset about being excluded from Facebook than the fear of being brought before the ICC because this is something that has really impacted him directly.

There have been a lot of complaints to Facebook about hate speech and it's not confined to Burma at all. It's kind of universal that Facebook allows anything to be assimilated through their website. The way Facebook works it that anyone can write anything really. You can use a fake name and do whatever. I think it's created a bit of a crisis even for serious media outlets – magazines, newspapers, websites, which are more dedicated to maintaining good journalistic standards. Facebook is a great tool for communicating with people to send messages but when it comes to assimilating information it can also be very destructive and Facebook eventually came under pressure to clean up its act. What they have done now—removing 20 people, I believe, from Burma— it's part of their attempt to restore people's confidence in it.

Soon after the ban, the Myanmar government spokesperson said the shutdown had nothing to do with the government, as it has a state-sponsored social media monitoring team. The spokesperson, U Zaw Htay, said he was concerned that the ban could have impact on national reconciliation, as the shutdown could cause misunderstanding between the military and the civilian government. What do you think?

Well I don't think there is much national reconciliation going on anyway. It's hard to predict what's going to happen in that relationship (Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing). We know it's very strained already. They hardly talk to each other from what I understand. And Aung San Suu Kyi is stepping very carefully so as not to further antagonize the military. If this is going to have a backlash on that, I think it's too early to say. But it's quite possible that it's not going to make the military happy when it comes to military-civil relations in general. I think that's as much as we can say at this stage.

The recent UN report was the latest condemnation by the West so far. Could they be a contributing factor that makes Myanmar move closer to China?

Absolutely. I mean, that's what is happening. You saw what happened following the attacks in August last year. The Western world condemned the Burmese army for what it did and while I'm not saying the condemnation was unjustified because immense brutalities were carried out, there's no doubt about that, 700,000 people were driven across the border. But the very strong condemnation from the side of the Western world made Burma move back to China.

We have to remember that all the reforms were implemented in 2011-12 starting with freeing political prisoners, allowing political organizations to operate more freely than before, and of course the suspension of the Myitsone Dam project. All this was done not because the ruling generals had some kind of democratic awakening experience; it was done because they had become too dependent on China during the years of isolation.

I have recently come to believe that the military chiefs had become acutely uncomfortable with the relationship and the dependence on China. Therefore, they wanted to open up to the outside world and they realized the only way to do that was to allow certain freedoms because otherwise the West would never have responded in the way they wanted them to respond. Of course they could see how Burma was drifting away from China – you had Hilary Clinton coming here, Obama coming twice – and the Chinese were sort of taken aback by this.

I understand the Chinese spent a whole year studying China-Burma relations and they probably realized they had put all their eggs in one basket: the military. So they decided to diversify their contacts. They established connections with the NLD, the 88 Generation, with Burmese journalists and so on.

They have been working very hard to reestablish the close relationship they once had. And of course they were helped to a great extent by what happened after the crisis in Rakhine State last year because as you know they blocked any attempt to raise the issue in the UN Security Council. What happened after that was both Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing went to China. She was in Singapore recently, she's been in some Asian countries and that's all. Relations between the West and Burma have become very strained and almost impossible to repair after what happened in the last year.

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Thai Army Chief Concerned about Disinformation on Social Media

Posted: 29 Aug 2018 11:31 PM PDT

The Thai Army commander-in-chief General Chalermchai Sitthisart today expressed concern about fake news and disinformation that will be disseminated in social media after the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) lifts the ban on political activities.

However, he said he is not worried about the overall political situation, as he believes that all sides are now looking forward to an election.

Gen Chalermchai said one of the topics discussed at the NCPO meeting yesterday was preparation for the general election. The army chief reaffirmed that the military junta will issue an executive order to partially relax the ban on political activities. The ban was imposed in a series of earlier executive orders shortly after the junta seized power in 2014.

He said the political ban would be eased so that during the months of September to December political parties can recruit new members, hold party meetings, elect party leaders and engage in other activities. However, political campaigns will not yet be allowed until the organic law on the election of lawmakers takes effect.

He said the only thing he is concerned about is a possible spread of fake news and disinformation in the social media in the run-up to the election.

The army chief said he has instructed army personnel to be neutral and not to side with any of the rival political camps.

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha reaffirmed yesterday that the election will be held in accordance with the political roadmap designed by the military junta.  February 24, 2019 is the earliest date legally possible for the election to be held, he said.

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Korea Detente Revives North Korean Leader’s Bullet Train Dreams

Posted: 29 Aug 2018 10:37 PM PDT

SEOUL — North Korea’s ruling family has long dreamed of a state-of-the-art rail system linking its major cities with each other and the wider world.

Now, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is looking to capitalize on an easing in international tensions with his isolated regime to advance plans for a high-speed rail network to rival those in Europe and neighboring South Korea.

Kim has instructed officials to seek partnerships with countries such as South Korea and France, according to a South Korean broker with knowledge of the matter and a senior North Korean diplomat.

Engineers and consultants in South Korea say they are also drawing up plans for possible rail projects with the North.

Both Koreas see new railways as a key that could unlock regional trade and tourism, connecting the Korean peninsula with Russia, China and beyond.

The prospect has boosted shares in Hyundai Rotem and other South Korean train and rail companies since the first inter-Korean summit in more than a decade in April.

But plans face numerous hurdles, not least wide-ranging sanctions on doing business in North Korea over its pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of the United Nations, and the country’s unstable electricity infrastructure.

Officials in both Koreas hope rail projects might be exempt from UN sanctions under a provision allowing some “non-commercial public utility infrastructure."

French Connection

A senior North Korean diplomat told the French senate in June the country would like to partner with France on railway construction, specifically naming Alstom, the maker of the iconic TGV bullet train, and French national railway operator SNCF, as potential partners.

“There are subjects and fields that aren't impacted by sanctions,” said Kim Yong Il, North Korea’s chief delegate at UNESCO in Paris, according to a previously unreported transcript of his remarks.

South Korea adopted Alstom’s technology for its KTX bullet trains introduced in 2004. The system is about six times faster than the North’s aging rail networks.

But it’s far from clear how infrastructure would be defined under the United Nations sanctions, and the French rail operators told Reuters they had no plans to team up with North Korea.

“Given the international context surrounding North Korea, such cooperation is not conceivable, which is what SNCF communicated,” a spokeswoman said.

Alstom said it does not “maintain contact or discussions with any of the country’s representatives."

The Dutch mission at the United Nations, which chairs the sanctions committee on North Korea, did not have immediate comment, while the North Korea mission did not return calls for comment.

Long-held Dream for Kim

A month before his death in 1994, Kim’s grandfather and founding leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, said a railway connecting the two Koreas, China and Russia could generate North Korea $1.5 billion annually from transporting commodities.

Kim Jong Un publicly expressed admiration for South Korea’s railways during a summit in April. Kim told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that his sister and delegation were in awe of South Korea’s bullet trains, which they travelled in to get to the Pyeongchang Olympics in February.

In May, foreign journalists took 12 hours to travel roughly 415 kilometers (258 miles) by train to watch the demolition of North Korea’s nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, averaging just 35 kilometers per hour. The same distance would take about 2.5 hours by South Korea’s KTX.

A bullet train system in North Korea could take at least five years to build and cost up to $20 billion, according to experts and railway executives.

Seoul and Pyongyang have discussed trans-Korean rail networks since the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.

A December 2015 North Korean investment brochure, seen by Reuters, says Pyongyang aims to build an “international rapid transit railway” to promote its special economic zone in the western city of Sinuiju bordering China.

The plan included converting some of the rail line to the capital into a “high-speed railway system,” according to the brochure.

In a statement carried by state media in 2015, Kim said a high-speed railway should be built between Pyongyang and a new international airport near the capital.

Kim also has more ambitious plans to build a high-speed railway linking Pyongyang to South Korea and China, a South Korean businessman said, citing North Korean officials charged with economic development.

“Kim is eyeing foreign currency earnings from ticket sales, and officials are pursuing a multinational consortium under his instruction,” said the businessman, who asked not to be named due to sensitivity of the matter.

Risky, but Potential Money-spinner

Seoul, too, has seen potential benefits from such a tie-up. In 2015, a state-run railway association estimated trans-Korean railways linking the peninsula to China and Russia could halve the time to transport freight, and generate substantial transit fees for the South.

“In the past, the inter-Korean rail project was simply linking disconnected lines but now it’s about working on practical ways to modernize rails, operate them and create economic value,” Ahn Byung-min, a member of South Korea’s presidential committee on economic cooperation with the North, told Reuters.

But a bullet train for the North has not been discussed in early talks with Pyongyang, Ahn said.

“Realistically, it will only come up later on the agenda because it involves a lot of money and complicated logistics.”

South Korea is budgeting 504 billion won ($450 million) next year for cross-border economic projects such as the modernization of North Korea’s roads and railways, up 46 percent from this year. It did not provide a breakdown for railways.

Seol Young-man, chief executive of Korea Engineering & Construction, told Reuters his firm is working on a high-speed railway and highway pitch for the South Korean government.

“We have to be prepared and ready to take initiative in competing against China and Russia in rebuilding North Korea’s rails and working with Kim Jong Un on economic cooperation,” Seol said.

A joint Chinese project to build hydro power stations in North Korea’s border region, as well as Russia’s rail project to transport Russian coal to a North Korean port have both received UN sanction exemptions.

But many risks remain in doing business with North Korea, including its secrecy and chronic power shortages, said Lee Chul, former president of South Korea’s state-run railroad operator.

“For railroad cooperation between South and North Korea, we thought it would be really good to understand the North’s railroad conditions,” said Lee, who met North Korean officials in 2006 to discuss restoring inter-Korean railways. “But North Korea considered it almost like military secrets and wouldn’t let us see.”

The post Korea Detente Revives North Korean Leader’s Bullet Train Dreams appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Aung San Suu Kyi Won’t Be Stripped of Nobel Peace Prize: Committee

Posted: 29 Aug 2018 10:08 PM PDT

STAVANGER, Norway — The Nobel Peace Prize to Aung San Suu Kyi will not be withdrawn in the light of a United Nations report that said Myanmar’s military carried out mass killings of Muslim Rohingya, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Wednesday.

On Monday, UN investigators said Myanmar’s military carried out mass killings and gang rapes with “genocidal intent," and the commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted for the gravest crimes under international law.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the Myanmar government and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for campaigning for democracy, has been criticized for failing to speak out against the army crackdown in Rakhine State.

“It’s important to remember that a Nobel Prize, whether in Physics, Literature or Peace, is awarded for some prize-worthy effort or achievement of the past,” said Olav Njoelstad, the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

“Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for democracy and freedom up until 1991, the year she was awarded the prize,” he said.

And the rules regulating the Nobel Prizes do not allow for a prize to be withdrawn, he added.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee consists of a panel of five Norwegians, mostly former politicians and academics, that reflect the different forces in the Norwegian Parliament. The other Nobel prizes are awarded in Sweden.

Last year, the head of the Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, also said it would not strip the award after previous criticism of Aung San Suu Kyi’s role in the Rohingya crisis.

“We don’t do it. It’s not our task to oversee or censor what a laureate does after the prize has been won,” she said in a television interview. “The prize winners themselves have to safeguard their own reputations.”

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Group of US Lawmakers Urges China Sanctions over Xinjiang Abuses

Posted: 29 Aug 2018 09:29 PM PDT

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of US lawmakers called on Wednesday for the United States to impose sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses against minority Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, saying it was being turned into a “high-tech police state.”

The group, led by Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Chris Smith, Republican co-chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Executive Commission on China, made the call in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Muslims in Xinjiang, China’s western autonomous region, were “being subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, egregious restrictions on religious practice and culture, and a digitized surveillance system so pervasive that every aspect of daily life is monitored,” the lawmakers said in their letter, which in addition to Rubio and Smith was signed by 15 US senators and representatives.

The letter, signed by nine Republicans, seven Democrats and one Independent, called for sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act against senior Chinese government and Communist Party officials overseeing the policies, including Xinjiang party chief Chen Quanguo, and for other measures to be considered.

The Magnitsky Act was originally designed to target Russian Rights violators, but has been expanded to allow sanctions for abuses anywhere in the world.

“The Chinese government is creating a high-tech police state in (Xinjiang) that is both a gross violation of privacy and international human rights,” the letter said.

China has said that Xinjiang faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists who plot attacks and stir up tensions between the mostly Muslim Uighur minority who call the region home and the ethnic Han Chinese majority.

A United Nations human rights panel earlier this month said it had received many credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uighurs in China are held in what resembles a “massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy.”

Hundreds of people have been killed in violence in Xinjiang in recent years, prompting the tough security measures.

The US lawmakers, in their letter, said as many as a million or more Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities were being detained in "political reeducation" centers or camps, saying this required “a tough, targeted, and global response.”

“No Chinese official or business complicit in what is happening … should profit from access to the United States or the US financial system,” the letter said.

The US State Department has said that it is deeply troubled by Beijing’s crackdown in Xinjiang, but has declined to comment on the possibility of future sanctions on Chen and others.

Critics have said the security and surveillance steps in Xinjiang have created near martial law conditions, with police checkpoints, reeducation centers and mass DNA collection.

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